Babydoll

They say don’t speak much and you’ll be happy.
They say don’t think much and you’ll be just fine.
They say be a good girl – but what does that mean?
They genuinely wished you a happily ever after – but whose happy ending is this?

Traditional Chinese culture considered goodness and sweetness some of a woman’s most valuable traits. Living up to our elder’s expectations whereas exploring our own identities, sexualities, and independence, the Chinese girls who grew up in the 1990s and 2000s are a contradicted generation. On one hand, we were deeply influenced by the traditional patriarchal standard that defined Chinese womanhood. On the other hand, the digital age introduced us to fundamental feminism and intersectional feminism principles.

The body of work on display was created between 2020 and 2022. Each piece was a conversation with my womanly self, navigating through guilt, shame, and a sense of empowerment stemmed from interrogating the cultural values and heritage that both shaped and restricted my perspective regarding myself and what being a woman meant for me. Utilizing graphite, watercolor, plant-based fabric, paper cutouts, and drawing inspiration from Chinese symbolism and motifs, these pieces offer a glimpse into the reconstruction of my identity as a Chinese woman, a diaspora, and an artist of color.